More Weather Woes

HONG KONG (AP) — Heavy rains unleashed flooding and landslides early Saturday in Hong Kong, shutting down roads and air traffic throughout the territory, officials said. Rescuers were searching for two people believed trapped after a roadside store that collapsed in torrential rains in the New Territories suburb, authorities said. "The heavy rainfall has loosened the mud. There's a chance of further landslides. It makes the operation more difficult," fire commander Tam Yiu-kei said. Flooding disrupted traffic at Hong Kong International Airport, with a highway to the airport covered in muddy water. Several cars were trapped on the highway, Hong Kong Cable TV footage showed. The storm, fueled by a trough of low pressure over the South China Sea, caused almost 40 landslides and 125 floods across the territory, government spokeswoman Suzanne Lee said. Nearly 12 inches of rain fell Saturday morning, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which issued rainstorm and landslide warnings.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A severe shortage of housing has left hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in Myanmar exposed to heavy rain as the monsoon season begins, aid agencies said Saturday. The United Nations and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said there was an urgent need for tarpaulins to provide temporary shelter to an estimated 1.5 million homeless survivors. Otherwise, the threats of hunger and disease could intensify, they warned. "Exposure to the elements five weeks after a disaster of this magnitude has to be a major concern," said John Sparrow, a spokesman for the IFRC. "People are in a weakened condition. They are sick; they are hungry. Without shelter, their whole situation is seriously exacerbated." The U.N. estimates 2.4 million people were affected when Cyclone Nargis hit May 2-3, and warns that more than 1 million still need help, mostly in the hard-to-reach Irrawaddy delta.